A Cuomo Postage Stomp: No Budget, No Tax Check

By SAM HOWE VERHOVEK,

Published: May 14, 1991

ALBANY, May 13—
In perhaps an overly successful bid to dramatize the turmoil caused by the state's budget stalemate, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo said today that his Tax Department was about to run out of money for the postage it needed to mail tax refunds to 1.3 million New Yorkers.

A short time later, after being deluged with questions, the Governor sought to reassure taxpayers that the checks would be in the mail after all.

The clamor over the refunds began this afternoon at a Capitol news conference convened by Mr. Cuomo to denounce the Legislature for failing to adopt a budget, now six weeks overdue.

"By Friday the Tax Department will be out of the money it needs to send you back your refunds," he said. "Think of it. The Tax Department will be broke."

Actually, it would not so much be broke -- it is, after all, sitting on $400 million in refunds that it owes taxpayers, tax officials said -- as unable to spend money without authorization from the Governor and the Legislature.

Mr. Cuomo's announcement clearly had its desired shock effect, judging from the questions that dominated the rest of the news conference. Perhaps concerned about a flood of taxpayer ire that would surely accompany a delay in refunds averaging $270 for want of 25 cents in postage (the state gets a 4-cent break), the Governor quickly moved to squelch fears that the checks would be held hostage.

"We'll take care of the postage," he said in a telephone call after the conference, adding that he would seek authorization to buy postage. "We do not want to damage innocent citizens."

But Mr. Cuomo continued to insist that by far the best way to avoid the problem would be for angry residents to compel their legislators to act on the budget.

The state's Commissioner of Taxation and Finance, James W. Wetzler, said the state had already mailed out almost 4 million refunds, with 1.6 million left to go. He said that without new authorization, there was postage to send out only 300,000 more.